When I say that the teaching of the Universal White Brotherhood is bringing a new religion to the world, it is not that I think that this teaching is an improvement on the religion that jesus gave us.

That is impossible. Jesus truly represents the summit, nothing can be more perfect than the law of love and sacrifice that he came to teach. It is only in the methods, applications and interpretations of that law that we can go further. The Gospels do not say it all; there are still so many things that are obscure and unexplained. And this is what the teaching of the Universal White Brotherhood can bring us: the explanations we still need.

Also, when I say that it is time for a universal religion, it is because Catholicism is not fully universal. Of course, the word 'catholic' means universal, but the fact remains that the Catholic religion is not universal. In the first place it is far from being practised by all human beings, and, above all, by rejecting many essential truths such as reincarnation, the laws of karma, and the primordial role of the sun in man's spiritual life, the Church has cut itself off from universal truth and become a sect. for a religion to be truly universal it must accept the whole truth and it must reach all men.

As it is, no religion in the world is founded on principles that are accepted by all human beings. Only a solar religion can be the universal religion, because all human beings accept the sun. We all seek the sun and understand what it is. Everything else interests some but not others, suits some but not others. In fact, if there are so many different religions, it is because each one is adapted to a particular mentality. If the claim of the Catholic Church to be universal is true, if it embraces every aspect of truth, why do I never see Catholics who are truly fulfilled spiritually? A great many Buddhists are far more advanced. They have such faith in the immortality of the soul that they are capable of throwing themselves into the flames.

They have no fear of death. Whereas Christians are so timid, so lacking in courage, that they tremble at the slightest threat and scream in terror if they are in danger of death.

As I have said, a universal religion must embrace all the knowledge and all the practical methods human beings need in order to reach the Lord. When Christianity refuses to teach reincarnation it makes it impossible for people to understand God's justice. Is there any wonder that nothing makes sense to them any more? They cannot see the underlying reason for what happens to them; everything seems illogical and unfair. In the face of evil or suffering, Christians can only say, 'It is the will of God.' The amazing thing is that they consider themselves to be blameless, above reproach.

They have done nothing to bring misfortune on themselves; it is entirely the Lord's doing. But this means that God behaves without rhyme or reason, his decisions are completely arbitrary.

For centuries their refusal to believe in reincarnation has barred Christians from advancing. The doctrine of reincarnation explains everything: from one existence to the next, every cause triggers a corresponding consequence.

When we know this we know that it is no longer the Lord who is to blame for what happens to us, but we ourselves. By choosing to follow a certain path, to manifest ourselves in a certain way, it is we who are responsible for our destiny, not God. God's sublime greatness, his splendour, perfection, and justice are untouched, unsullied. Whereas if you reject reincarnation you have to put all the blame on God. It seems to me that if Christians were really concerned about the glory and perfection of God, the least they could do would be to accept reincarnation. They are so stupid that they do not even recognize the consequences of their attitude; they do not realize
that the image of God they hold up to the world is a monstrous caricature. God gave human beings free will.

He tells them, 'Do whatever you like, but remember that if you break the law you will suffer. But that does not matter, you have all eternity ahead of you. You will have plenty of time in which to repent and make reparation. I am patient.'

Take a man who is miserable because he is married to a shrew, a veritable Xanthippe, and he has no idea why he has such a wife. He thinks she must be a punishment from heaven. Not at all. It was he himself who sought her out, who chose a shrew without knowing what he was doing, and now he regrets it bitterly. Socrates never complained, he put up with everything patiently.

One day, while he was talking to a friend, Xanthippe was muttering and scolding in an upstairs room and ended by pouring a pail of slops over him. The friend was very indignant, but Socrates only remarked, 'Oh well, after the thunder comes the rain.' He was not so easily put out. He had chosen to marry Xanthippe, and thanks to her he developed great patience and indifference in the face of criticism and insults. So my advice to you is to find a Xanthippe for yourself. Why do you want your wife to be perfect? You would only go to sleep and stop evolving if she were; but think of what progress you would make with a Xanthippe by your side. You see what excellent advice I always give you!

By refusing the reality of reincarnation the Church is portraying the Lord as a monster and a tyrant. In any case, quite apart from this, there is much to object to in the image the Church presents of God, for it has inerited the Old Testament notion of a jealous, vengeful, terrifying God, always ready to punish and chastise human beings. And I say that this view is false. God is not like that at all. Why did the Old Testament present him in this way? The answer is that the human beings of those days were at a stage of their evolution where they needed the discipline of fear. They needed to envisage a stern, ruthless God with whom Moses could intercede to soothe his wrath
and turn him away from the destruction of his people. The truth is that God never punishes anyone; he is not concerned with punishment. He spends his time up there in the midst of song and music, banqueting in the company of his angels and archangels while divine nectar and ambrosia flow in abundance. Do you imagine that the Lord has nothing better to do than to follow human beings around day and night, writing down in his little notebook all the filthy, revolting things they do, whether openly or in secret? Poor Lord, what a job.

Think how disgusted he would be.
No, I do not believe a word of it. I think that if human beings have invented machines to record and do their calculations for them, it is because such machines already existed in nature and therefore within us also. It is these machines that record our thoughts, feelings and actions, and as soon as we overstep the mark, in whatever area, the machine cracks down on us. But it is God who punishes us. On the contrary, God is always ready to welcome us to his banquet.

Let us suppose that you are being pursued by enemies (you may remember that I spoke to you about this one day), and in order to get away from them you run and run as fast as you can until you get to heaven. And there, breathless, covered with dust, your clothes all tattered and torn, you suddently find yourself in the midst of a magnificent assembly of angels and archangels.

Dumbfounded, you gaze at these beautiful creatures as they sing and rejoice with the Lord, who is seated in their midst. Nobody says, 'What are you doing here, you dirty ruffian? Away with you. This is no place for you.' On the contrary, as soon as he sees you the Lord says to his servants, 'Give him water to wash with, dress him in fine clothes, and let him come and share in our banquet.' But the enemies that were pursuing you will not be allowed in. They are made to wait outside, and as the banquet lasts a long time they finally lose patience and go home. Yes, this is how it works.

Have you never realized that? You have all known days when you were overwhelmed and besieged by your inner enemies, and then you started to pray and pray and pray... and within a few minutes you had a wonderful feeling of happiness and release; your enemies had left you. You must try to understand what this image means.

Do not think that I have come to destroy the Church, not at all. It is just that I possess a light that the Church does not possess at the moment, but I am very willing to collaborate with it. In fact I have already tried to do so. I have often met priests, Dominicans and Franciscans, and others and have tried to talk to them, but I have never had much success. Oh, perhaps I succeeded with two or three of them, but not with the others. The trouble is that their minds have been so deformed by their seminary training that there is nothing anyone can do now to persuade them to accept the light of these great truths. This is why I prefer to deal with atheists, unbelievers, and anarchists; I am much more successful with them. But with the religious? My word, how rigid, bigoted, and narrow-minded they can be! I have every confidence that this will change one day, but not before they have had to endure all kinds of tribulations and been forced to reflect.

If the Lord is in the process of creating a new heaven and a new earth (and this is what the Bible tells us), why should there not also be a new religion? New in exactly the same way as heaven and earth can be new. Of course the expression is symbolic; I have already explained to you that you must not take it literally. If you did, you would have a very bad impression of the Lord and would mean that he had used second-rate materials when he built heaven and earth, and now they are rusting and wearing out. This is why he has to start all over again... and while he is rebuilding, all the inhabitants of heaven and earth are going to be out in the rain without a roof over their heads.

No, that is just nonsense. The truth is that the new heaven and new earth refer to us; it is within us that God is creating them. The new heaven is a new mentality, a new philosophy, a new point of view, a new understanding of things; This is how you should interpret this image of the new heaven and the new earth. To understand it any other way would be to slight the Lord. It would mean that he did not know the properties of the elements that he himself created and now he finds that they are rotting and wearing out. Whereas if you interpret this image as I have shown you, the Lord's greatness, immensity, and infinite wisdom remain intact.

Of course, I know that you will not accept what I tell you, but you must at least try not to cling rigidly to your own opinions until you have made quite sure that they really correspond to the truth. There are still a great many of you who hold obstinately to your own point of view. Instead of trying to understand what I tell you, you think to yourselves, 'Oh no, that is not true. It cannot be. It is monstrous. I know how it should be.' But there comes a time in life when you simply have to ask yourself whether your own point of view is really correct, really flawless. Unfortuneatly, so many men and women prefer to cling to their point of view, to defend it all their life long, without ever trying to find out to what extent it is realistic and true. And that is very dangerous.

Many people's lives end in disaster simply because they insist on defending their mistaken philosophy at any price. Yet those same people find it normal to go for a physical check-up from time to time. They get a doctor to examine their heart, stomach, liver, spleen, or intestines and tell them what is wrong with them, but they would never go and ask a spiritual master to tell them what was wrong with the way they felt and understood things. They consider that in these areas they are in perfect health: their thinking is all right, they see things clearly, their judgement is impeccable, they reason perfect? The proof of their misfortunes, sorrows, and failures. Yes, and yet they continue to believe that they are impeccable.

The whole world will one day come to the Universal White Brotherhood. At the moment you do not believe me when I say this, because there are more and more new teachings and new sects - not to mention all the ancient practices that had died away and are now being revived. Every one of those groups and philosophies has some good in it, but they all lack one essential element: none of them gives priority to the necessity of living for the collectivity, for brotherhood, for universality. Their members work for themselves, for their own advancement. And does mankind benefit from all that knowledge and power? It does not. Indeed, they themselves are often very unhappy people. So you must leave all those things alone and work only to bring peace, happiness, joy, and light to the whole world. True power and true knowledge are given to those who work unselfishly for the whole world. You will not know exactly how these gifts come, but they will come to you and dwell within you. It is when one stops thinking so much about oneself that one becomes truly formidable, because in this way one widens the circle. This is the new teaching that we are bringing to the world.